Journal of Management Information Systems

Volume 34 Number 1 2017 pp. 1-10

Editorial Introduction

Zwass, Vladimir

The three studies that open this issue and volume of the Journal of Management Information Systems (JMIS) investigate the social aspects of information technology (IT) use. The first article focuses on the online health-care communities, which have become an irreplaceable component of cure and well-being. The participants of these communities disclose more information to the community more often than they reveal to medical practitioners; community members gain comfort, and sometimes learn more steadily than in a formal encounter with physicians and other health-care providers. In toto, the knowledge accumulated through the articulations on these community sites is an important complement to codified medical knowledge. Looked at through the lens of consumer cocreation of value, the user-generated content can be aggregated and deployed as an economic resource. This has been recognized by the pharmaceutical companies and other health-care suppliers. Here, Lu (Lucy) Yan and Yong Tan study the role of social influence enacted in these health-care communities on the perceptions of participants about the effectiveness of their treatment. They find that this influence is exerted to a significant degree, and they present nuanced findings about the role of moderating factors. These results need to be recognized by all the stakeholders. No doubt, these findings will be generalized to other electronic community settings.

The success of online communities and social network sites (SNS) where communities most frequently act depends on user participation and, in particular, on the active engagement of participants in generating the content. Two author teams investigate empirically the antecedents of such behavior. The authors of the first of the works study contributory behavior: Jungwon Kuem, Soumya Ray, Mikko Siponen, and Sung S. Kim present and test a comprehensive model of this prosocial behavior on SNS. The researchers base their work on the theories of postadoption behavior and commitment to identify three mechanisms that regulate the engagement behavior of SNS users. The results, tested in the context of Facebook data, are of foundational value to further research and of practical use to SNS providers and community organizers. In the next work, Zhao Pan, Yaobin Lu, Bin Wang, and Patrick Y.K. Chau focus on social self-identity as a motivator in the general use of social media. Grounding themselves in identity theories, the authors dichotomize self-identity into the relational and social levels, and the use of social media into varied (variety-seeking) and reinforced (i.e., reinforcing a prior pattern). The authors find differential effects of social self-identity levels on this use. Again, useful implications follow.

IT adoption is not a one-way street. Disadoption can, and often does, follow—and readoption of a new generation of a technology can emerge. Why would it? This is the research question pursued by Xin Xu, James Y.L. Thong, and Kar Yan Tam. These authors present a technology readoption model that includes two driver sets: the characteristics of prior experience with the technology and the drivers related to the new generation of technology. The model proves robust in testing, and the findings will serve further research in this promising domain, as well as help firms to win back those who have given up on the previous models of their IT artifacts.

As we all know, cyberloafing is a common behavior that involves using the Internet on the job for private ends. It is deleterious in its effects beyond the misuse of the employee’s time, in that security risks can result, illegalities can open the employer to lawsuits, and morale can be lowered. Companies employ countermeasures. How effective are they? Here, Lara Khansa, Jungwon Kuem, Mikko Siponen, and Sung S. Kim empirically investigate the effectiveness of the announcement of formal organizational controls against these behaviors. These include policies and rules enforced by monitoring, and penalties for their violation. The authors propose a theoretically grounded model, which they test with pre- and postannouncement organizational surveys. The researchers find that the antecedents of cyberloafing change in the postannouncement stage. The change is significant, as discussed by the authors extensively, and its recognition will serve to control cyberloafing. The findings will also help control other deviant behavior when specialized to other settings.

Two subsequent papers present a formal analysis of IT phenomena. Shengli Li, Hsing Kenneth Cheng, Yang Duan, and Yu-Chen Yang offer a comparative study of the advantages of alternative licensing models for enterprise software. Such systems can be acquired in the contemporary setting in three ways: by purchase and installation in the data center itself (on-premises model), by use from the cloud on the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, or by combining the two in a hybrid approach. What is the optimal choice from the perspective of the software vendor? Based on their analysis in the context of the common two-period deployment of enterprise software (the original version and one upgrade), the authors offer conclusive recommendations. Notably, network effects play a significant role in disposition.

Expert services are increasingly offered online. Medical, legal, and accounting services are just the most obvious examples. Obviously, physical service delivery still prevails. What should be the pricing structure in such multichannel delivery systems for expert services? M. Tolga Akçura and Zafer D. Ozdemir present a game-theoretic model that allows them to offer well-founded advice to experts and a foundation for analysts of social welfare to conduct further work in this area, which will soon include robo-providers of expert services.

The role of IT integration in mergers and acquisitions of firms is large enough to lead at times to the withdrawal of offers or even failures of such corporate moves. Here, a related, but different issue is studied with econometric analysis. Young Bong Chang and Wooje Cho investigate postmerger risks in their dependence on the motives for the merger or acquisition. The researchers also bring into their model the postmerger dynamics (read: potential instability) of the industry. The multifaceted analysis shows that the motives for this move by the acquirer, which may be production-side (internal activities of the firm) or customer-side (oriented toward capturing and serving the customers), entail different postmerger risks. In a more granular analysis, the authors offer guidelines for controlling these risks.

The use of game elements in nongame contexts to engage IT users, known as gamification, has moved into the workplace. While appearing attractive in more senses than one, this approach has not been an unmitigated success: such systems are frequently abandoned. Ayoung Suh, Christy M.K. Cheung, Manju Ahuja, and Christian Wagner posit that the aesthetic experience (AE) provides to users should successfully complement the previously recognized flow experience (FE) in seeking the lasting use of gamified systems. The authors proceed to define and operationalize the AE construct. By validating their model in the setting of a consulting company, the researchers show that their proposed AE has a greater effect than FE on the intention to continue the use of a gamified IT artifact. This is an interesting contribution that can be expanded to other settings.

As we open the thirty-fourth volume of JMIS, it is my pleasure and privilege to offer thanks to our referees, the primary guarantors of the quality of the articles we publish. Here are the names of our reviewers:

Marc Adam

Ashish Agarwal

Hyung Jun Ahn

Oliver Alexy

Muhammad Aljukhadar

Gove Allen

Paul Alpar

Niek Althuizen

Kemal Altinkemer

Naveen Amblee

Ofer Arazy

Ravi Aron

Kursad Asdemir

Norman Au

Yoris Au

Benoit A. Aubert

Peter van Baalen

Hyunmi Baek

Akhilesh Bajaj

Hillol Bala

Dirk Baldwin

Subhajyoti Bandyopadhyay

Youngsok Bang

Gaurav Bansal

Reza Barkhi

Henri Barki

Stuart J. Barnes

Richard Baskerville

Genevieve Basselier

Dinesh Batra

Daniel Beimborn

D. France Belanger

Skip Benamati

Michel Benaroch

Alexander Benlian

François Bergeron

Ganesh Bhatt

Sudip Bhattacharjee

David Biros

Ivo Blohm

Jesse Bockstedt

Riccardo Bonazzi

Antal van den Bosch

Indranil Bose

Imed Boughzala

Randy Bradley

Tobias Brandt

Nicola Breugst

Glenn J. Browne

Sebastian Bruque

Scott Buffett

Burcu Bulgurcu

Judee Burgoon

Andrew Burton-Jones

Ashley Bush

Brian Butler

Terry A. Byrd

Sonia M. Camacho

Jinwei Cao

Lan Cao

Hasan Cavusoglu

Hsin-Lu Chang

Young Bong Chang

Mohamed-Hédi Charki

Sutirtha Chatterjee

Michael Chau

Patrick Chau

Aihui Chen

Andrew Chen

Daniel Chen

Guoqing Chen

Hong-Mei Chen

Hsinchun Chen

Jianqing Chen

Jin Chen

Kay-Yut Chen

Kuan Chen

Li Chen

Liwei Chen

Rui Chen

Hsing Kenneth Cheng

Mike Cheung

Robert T.H. Chi

Robert Chiang

Roger Chiang

Benjamin Chiao

Ananth Chiravuri

Alina M. Chircu

Chaochang Chiu

Jong-min Choe

Ben Choi

H. Michael Chung

Wingyan Chung

Theodore H. Clark

Isabelle Comyn-Wattiau

Randolph Cooper

Kevin Crowston

Dianne Cyr

Qizhi Dai

John D’Arcy

Ronald Dattero

Gregory Dawson

Jason Dedrick

Chrysanthos Dellarocas

Haluk Demirkan

Tianjie Deng

Xuefei Deng

Sarv Devaraj

Debabrata Dey

Jens Dibbern

Soussan Djamasbi

Su Dong

Line Dubé

Peter Duchessi

Alina Dulipovici

Deborah E. Dunkle

Kaushik Dutta

Robert Easley

Dana Edberg

Christophe Elie-Dit-Cosaque

Omar A. El Sawy

Mike Eom

Sean B. Eom

J. Alberto Espinosa

Andrea Everard

Kelly Fadel

Ming Fan

Patrick Fan

Xiaofen Fang

Yu-Hui Fang

Yulin Fang

Rei Fen

Jane Feng

Daniel R. Fesenmaier

Thomas A. Fischer

Jerry Fjermestad

Chris Forman

Chiara Francalanci

Johann Füller

Brent Furneaux

John Gallaugher

Dale Ganley

Gordon Gao

Hong Gao

Monica Garfield

Rajiv Garg

Ina Garnefeld

Edward J. Garrity

Michiel van Genuchten

Abhijeet Ghoshal

Janis L. Gogan

Kim Huat Goh

Thomas Goh

Sigi Goode

Dale Goodhue

Anand Gopal

Ram D. Gopal

Nelson Granados

Peter Gray

Dawn G. Gregg

Shirley Gregor

Ulrike Gretzel

Robert K. Griffin

Michael D. Grigoriades

Bin Gu

Ken Guo

Xunhua Guo

Zhiling Guo

Saurabh Gupta

Nicole Haggerty

Jungpil Hahn

Ingoo Han

Kunsoo Han

Shu Han

Il-Horn Hann

Matthew Hashim

Cheng-Suang Heng

Raymond Henry

Hemantha Herath

Tejaswini Herath

Traci Hess

Alan R. Hevner

Oliver Hinz

Susanna Ho

Christian P. Hoffmann

Richard Hoffman

Jason Hong

Kevin Hong

Weiyin Hong

John A. Hoxmeier

Jeffrey Hu

Nan Hu

Paul Hu

Petra Hu

Qing Hu

Chun-Yao Huang

Ming-Hui Huang

Shiu-Li Huang

Wayne Huang

Xiaowen Huang

Thomas Huber

Kai Lung Hui

Wendy Hui

Ard Huizing

Ghiyong Im

Gretchen I. Irwin

Anja Ischebeck

Varghese Jacob

Bharat A. Jain

Hemant Jain

Jeevan Jaisingh

Dietmar Jannach

Matthew Jensen

James J. Jiang

Qiqi Jiang

Zhengrui Jiang

Zhenhui Jiang

Monica Johar

Alice Johnson

Eric Johnson

Emmanuel Josserand

Surinder Kahai

Arnold Kamis

Atreyi Kankanhalli

Karthik Kannan

P.K. Kannan

Maurits Kaptein

Prasanna Karhade

Jahangir Karimi

Michael Kattan

Timothy Kayworth

Weiling Ke

Mark Keith

Peter Kenning

William J. Kettinger

Lara Khansa

Moutaz Khouja

Melody Y. Kiang

Byung Cho Kim

Dan J. Kim

Dongmin Kim

Hee-Woong Kim

Keongtae Kim

Kihoon Kim

Seung Hyun Kim

Young-Gul Kim

Ruth King

Rajiv Kishore

Gary Klein

Richard Klein

Sven Kleinknecht

Stefan Knoll

Cenk Kocas

Chang Koh

Rajiv Kohli

Tobias Kollman

Praveen K. Kopalle

Marios Koufaris

Kenneth A. Kozar

Ramayya Krishnan

Uday Kulkarni

Akhil Kumar

Ram Kumar

Subodha Kumar

Jason Kuruzovich

Juhee Kwon

Atanu Lahiri

Simon S.K. Lam

Guido Lang

Karl R. Lang

Kai R. Larsen

Benjiang Lee

ByungJoon Lee

Byungtae Lee

Dong-Joo Lee

Goonwoong Lee

Gwanhoo Lee

Heeseok Lee

Ho Geun Lee

Jong Seok Lee

Jungwoo Lee

Thomas Lee

Yang Lee

Youngjin Lee

Pierre-Majorique Léger

Jan Marco Leimeister

Natalia Levina

Chen Li

Dahui Li

Jiexun Li

Mengxiang Li

Seth Li

Ting Li

Xiaotong Li

Xin Li

XinXin Li

Yan Li

Huigang Liang

Ting-Peng Liang

Paul Licker

John Lim

Shi Ying Lim

Aleck Lin

Fu-ren Lin

Mei Lin

Zhijie Lin

Charles Zhechao Liu

Jun Liu

Ying Liu

Yipeng Liu

Alexandre Lopes

Paul B. Lowry

Benjiang Lu

Jingdu Lu

Henry C. Lucas Jr.

Stephan Ludwig

Xueming Luo

Christoph Lutz

Mark Lycett

Dan Ma

Xiao Ma

Jane M. Mackay

Massimo Magni

Pruthikrai Mahatanankoon

M. Adam Mahmood

Bin Mai

Yogesh Malhotra

Deepa Mani

Ravi Mantena

Salvatore T. March

Kent Marett

Panos Markopoulos

Likoebe M. Maruping

Sabine Matook

Kurt Matzler

Jerrold H. May

Kristina McElheran

Ephraim R. McLean

Nigel Melville

Nirup Menon

Thomas Meservy

Randy Minas

Shaila Miranda

Dinesh Mirchandani

Abhay Nath Mishra

Stephanie Missonier

Sunil Mithas

Prasenjit Mitra

Kannan Mohan

Peter N.C. Mohr

William Money

Ali R. Montazemi

Ramiro Montealegre

Alan Montgomery

Greg Moody

Jolene Morrison

Michael D. Myers

Peter P. Mykytyn Jr.

Barin N. Nag

Fiona Nah

Ravi Narayanaswamy

Derek Nazareth

Matthew Nelson

R. Ryan Nelson

Boon Siong Neo

Derrick Neufeld

Dirk Neumann

Dorit Nevo

Saggi Nevo

Michael Newman

Tingting Nian

Mark Nissen

Dmitri Nizovtsev

Oded Nov

Joo Hee Oh

Lih-Bin Oh

Onook Oh

Wonseok Oh

Bob O’Keefe

Lorne Olfman

James Oliver

Ana Ortiz de Guinea

Benoit Otjacques

Bob Otondo

Peter Otto

Eric Overby

Zafer D. Ozdemir

Raymond R. Panko

Gautam Pant

Manoj Parameswaran

Michael Parent

Insu Park

SungJune Park

Craig Parker

Bhavik K. Pathak

Praveen Pathak

Ravi Patnayakuni

Souren Paul

David J. Pauleen

Kenneth Peffers

Robin Pennington

Christoph Peters

Chee-Wei Phang

Roger A. Pick

Selwyn Piramuthu

Huseyin Polat

Jean-Charles Pomerol

Jaana Porra

Constance Porter

Clay Posey

John H. Prager

David Preston

Sandeep Purao

Jessica Pye

Liangfei Qiu

Lingyun Qiu

Wen Guang Qu

Xin Xue Qu

Arik Ragowsky

Rex Kelly Rainer Jr.

Balaraman Rajan

Vandana Ramachandran

Arkalgud Ramaprasad

Bala Ramesh

H.R. Rao

R. Ravichandran

Gautam Ray

Louis Raymond

Blaize Horner Reich

Bruce Reinig

Fei Ren

Yuqing Ren

Paul Resnick

Hyuen-Suk Rhee

Amir Riaz

William B. Richmond

Christoph Riedl

René Riedl

Lionel Robert

Nicholas Roberts

Daniel Robey

Michael Rogich

Huaxia Rui

Sherry D. Ryan

Young U. Ryu

Michael Sacks

Khawaja Saeed

Rajib Saha

Otavio Sanchez

G. Lawrence Sanders

Radhika Santhanam

Pallab Sanyal

Saonee Sarker

Surendra Sarnikar

Carol Saunders

Kevin Scheibe

George Schell

Hans J. Scholl

Petra Schubert

Judy Scott

Eric See-To

Ravi Sen

Sagnika Sen

Sylvain Sénécal

Alexander Serenko

Nainika Seth

Vikram Sethi

Theresa M. Shaft

Zhe Shan

Tushar Shanker

Michael Shaw

Jim Sheffield

Hong Sheng

Zhan Shi

Hung-Pin Shih

Siew Kien Sia

Keng Siau

Anna Sidorova

Mark Silver

Harpreet Singh

Param Vir Singh

Atish P. Sinha

Sumit Sircar

Bernd Skiera

Stefan Smolnik

Jaeki Song

Ryan Sougstad

Scott Spangler

William E. Spangler

Rajendra P. Srivastava

Shirish C. Srivastava

Thomas F. Stafford

Eric W. Stein

Dick Stenmark

Stefan Stieglitz

Theofanis C. Stratopoulos

Diane M. Strong

Mani Subramani

Chandra Subramaniam

Ramanath Subramanyam

Eung-Kyo Suh

Daewon Sun

Heshan Sun

Arun Sundararajan

Shankar Sundaresan

Juliana SutantoPaul P. Tallon

Chuan-Hoo Tan

Yao-Hua Tan

Xinlin Tang

Mohan R. Tanniru

Monideepa Tarafdar

Nolan Taylor

Orkun Temizkan

Gary F. Templeton

Hock Hai Teo

Thompson Teo

Matthew Thatcher

Dominic Thomas

Ron Thompson

James Y.L. Thong

Ryad Titah

Torrie Wu Tong

Monica Chiarini Tremblay

Yanbin Tu

Ofir Turel

Tuure Tuunanen

Doug Twitchell

Nathan W. Twyman

Sonja Utz

Rustam Vahidov

Ganesan Vaidyanathan

Anthony Vance

Goetz Viering

Padmal Vitharana

Radu Vlas

Douglas Vogel

Sebastian Voigt

Jan vom Brocke

Heinz-Theo Wagner

Steven Walczak

Eric Walden

Jeffrey Wall

Joseph Walls

Zhiping Walter

Bin Wang

Eric T.G. Wang

Jingguo Wang

Michael S. Wang

Qiu-Hong Wang

Shouhong Wang

Sophia Wang

Weiquan Wang

Yinglei Wang

Y. Richard Wang

Deepa Wani

Sidne Ward

Mary Beth Watson-Manheim

Sunil Wattal

Thomas Weber

Chih-Ping Wei

Markus Weinmann

Tim Weitzel

John Wells

Robert West

J. Christopher Westland

Jonathan Whitaker

Michael E. Whitman

Jeffrey L. Whitten

George Widmeyer

Rolf Wigand

Fons Wijnhoven

E. Vance Wilson

Robert Winter

Christopher Wolfe

Christina Wong

Charles A. Wood

Hans Wortmann

Ryan Wright

Dazhong Wu

Choon Ling Xia

Lan Xia

Weidong Xia

Mingdi Xin

Heng Xu

Hongjiang Xu

Kefeng Xu

Lizhen Xu

Peng Xu

Yunjie (Calvin) Xu

Ling Xue

Lucy Yan

Yinping Yang

Zhiyong Yang

Oliver Yao

Cheng Yi

Denny Yin

Zhitao Yin

Byungjoon Yoo

Yufei Yuan

Wei T. Yue

Fatemeh (Mariam) Zahedi

Chun Zeng

Dongsong Zhang

Han Zhang

Jennifer Zhang

John Zhang

Ping Zhang

Xiaoquan Zhang

Yulei Zhang

Zhu Zhang

Huimin Zhao

J. Leon Zhao

Kang Zhao

Kexin Zhao

Xia Zhao

Dmitry Zhdanov

Lina Zhou

Yilu Zhou

Zhongyun Zhou

Hongwei Zhu

Wenqi Zhu

Youlong Zhuang

Moshe Zviran

Let us proceed to the articles.